iPhone 6 iOS 10.3 Update: Impressions & Performance

A quick note about the iOS 10.3 download and installation process on the iPhone 6.

The iPhone 6 iOS 10.3 update is huge, several hundred MB huge, and it will take you some time to download over Wi-Fi. It took us about seven minutes to download .

The installation process will take a lot longer, longer than most iOS updates. Our iPhone 6 iOS 10.3 update took about 15 minutes to install. This is due, in part, to the file system change to APFS.

We recommend putting aside 30 minutes or so of quiet time to monitor your iPhone 6 installation for problems.

We’ve been using the iPhone 6 iOS 10.3 update for a few days now and we’ve been taking a close look at some key areas including battery life, connectivity, and UI speed. Here’s what we’ve learned so far.

We haven’t noticed any abnormal battery drain. Our iPhone 6 (AT&T model) is holding a solid charge and we haven’t seen the notorious 30% battery bug that’s popped up for some iPhone 6 users on iOS 10.

If you recently installed iOS 10.3 and you’re noticing issues with your iPhone 6’s battery life, give it a couple of days. It can sometimes take a few days for the battery and the new update to settle in. If you continue to notice issues, take action.

We’ve tested the iPhone 6’s new update with several ISPs, routers, and Bluetooth devices. We haven’t run into any issues yet though that could certainly change down the road. AT&T’s LTE and 4G networks are working properly as well.

We haven’t noticed any random reboots and the phone’s UI appears to be fast. Animations and transitions are fluid and we haven’t encountered any weird lag or sluggishness when opening folders, apps or Control Center.

The iPhone 6 iOS 10.3 update’s performance has been solid thus far. And given what’s on board the update (new features, bug fixes and tons of important security patches), it’s certainly worth a look if your iPhone 6 is already on iOS 10.

If you’re on an older version of iOS, say iOS 9, you might want to wait a few days so you can gather a little more feedback about performance.

If you need help to one side of the iOS 10.3 fence or the other, please take a look at our list of reasons. It’ll help you make a decision today.